School of Prayer

SESSION FOUR: On Mary and Marian Prayer

St. Mary’s, November 5, 2015

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

(John 19:25-27)

Jesus gave us his mother from the cross. While he was giving his life for us he also gave us his mother to be our mother. This says a lot about our need for her.

In the Father’s plan she is the one through whom Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, is given us. This continues to be even now.

She is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit worked and continues to work through her.

“In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.” (CCC, 968)

“Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.” (CCC, 969)

This does not take away anything from the role of Christ, of course.

“…the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men... flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it”. (CCC, 970)

Mary is the ‘shortcut’ to Jesus. She is ‘transparent’ of God.

This is the context in which we can understand Marian devotion.

To whom shall we look at to model a better and deeper relationship with her?

Jesus entrusted himself to her care. He was obedient to her. She formed him. He was in her arms at the beginning and at the end of his life.

Being “Marian”- the heart of Marian devotion

-Waking up in the morning: act of offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the heart of Mary

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day
for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians,
and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.
Amen.

-Entering our times of prayer with her. It is difficult to assume an attitude of superiority, self-sufficiency and pride when you are like a child holding the hand of your mother. And since, listening to God means obeying him, we can ask her help also in that, because she was always obedient to the slightest inspiration of God.

-When we go to Mass we can ask her to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus, his Word and his Body, as she received him, with love, purity, and docility.

-When we find ourselves struggling with difficult situations and people, with temptations, with doubts and sorrows we can turn to her to be protected and enlightened. A beautiful prayer that we can say in those moments is the Memorare that reminds us that our Mother will never abandon us.

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

There are of course many beautiful prayers and devotions that invite us to pray with Mary and with her intercession.

Among them shines the rosary, which was the favorite prayer of many saints, like St. John Paul II. He wrote a whole apostolic letter on it, called “RosariumVirginisMariae”.

‘The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness.’(RVM, 1)

‘With the Rosary, the Christian peoplesits at the school of Maryand is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.’(RVM, 1)

‘But the most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful thatcommitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery ‘(RVM, 5)

In other words, the rosary is a way to enter into the Christian mystery.

“Mary constantly sets before the faithful the ‘mysteries’ of the Son, with the desire that the contemplation of those mysteries will release all their saving power” (RVM, 11)

When we start the rosary, we are asking Mary to take us into the mysteries of the life of Christ, so that we can look at him with her eyes and be changed by that experience.

This means that the rosary is not simply a vocal prayer, but it is a form of meditation and it leads us to contemplate the most handsome of men (Psalm 45:3).

Blessed Bartolo Longo has written: “Just as two friends, frequently in each other's company, tend to develop similar habits, so too, by holding familiar converse with Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, by meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and by living the same life in Holy Communion, we can become, to the extent of our lowliness, similar to them and can learn from these supreme models a life of humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and perfection”. (RVM, 15)

The rosary is a form of meditation but also of supplication.

Jesus invited us to turn to God with insistence and confidence: “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Mt 7:7).

Our prayer is sustained by the prayer of Mary.

Praying the rosary in a fruitful way - suggestions from St. John Paul:

The method of the rosary is based on repetition, and he points out how repetition, far from being boring, is typical of the dynamic of love. As we repeat the Hail Marys, we want to remember that our act of love is ultimately directed toward Jesus, with her and through her.

When we begin each decade, we announce the mystery. We are opening up a scenario on which we want to focus our attention. It is one of the moments or episodes in the life of Christ. We can ‘go there’ with Mary, using also our imagination. The pope suggested that after announcing the mystery we go to the Word of God, to a passage in Scripture related to that mystery. We are allowing God to speak.

Instead of rushing through the prayer, we are invited to stop in silence for a little while after we announce the mystery so that we can focus on it.

The Our Fatherat the beginning of the decade reminds us that Jesus came to lead us home, to the Father. As we begin our meditation, we then want to raise our minds and heart to him.

The Hail Marys are the most substantial part of the rosary.

The hinge of this prayer is the name of Jesus. We are reciting the rosary so that we can enter more deeply into the life of Christ and be conformed to him.

As we pray the ten Hail Marys we keep our hearts focused on the mystery, and we ‘wander‘with Mary in that scene, staying with Jesus and looking at him through her eyes.

The Gloriais the high point of our contemplation. We give glory to the Trinity. Christ is the way that leads us to the Father in the Spirit. It is important to give prominence to this prayer.

There are of course also other prayers said at the end of the decade or of the rosary that vary from place to place. Common to everyone though is the Salve Regina(Hail Holy Queen), seen as a bursting forth in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Each day we can spend that time with Mary and Jesus, following if we wish the order of the mysteries (Monday and Saturday the joyful ones, Tuesday and Friday the sorrowful ones, Thursday the luminous ones, and Wednesday and Sunday the glorious ones).

Like the beloved disciple, let us take Mary into our house, to protect and guide us. Praying the rosary is a way of doing that. Consecrating ourselves to Jesus through her is also a very powerful way.

It is like placing ourselves in her arms, like Jesus in this icon. It can’t harm us, on the contrary it benefits us greatly.

For further reflection:

‘RosariumVirginisMariae’, by St. John Paul II (it can be found on the Vatican website)

‘The Secret of the Rosary’, by St. Louis de Monfort

‘Preparation for Total Consecration According to St. Louis de Montfort’

‘33 days to morning glory’, by Father Gaitley

‘Totustuus’, by Fr. Brian McMaster

EXERCISE FOR THE WEEK:

Try to start the day with the act of offering to Jesus through the heart of Mary.

If the rosary is not yet part of your prayer habit, start with saying a decade every day.

NEXT SESSION WE WILL LEARN ABOUT AND EXPERIENCE LITURGICAL PRAYER.